God’s love: incarnation, initiation, propitiation

Notes from last Sunday’s sermon:

Have you merely gone from being a full-time pagan to a part-time dabbler in sin?

Your sin is so great that it took nothing less than the death of God’s Son to pay for it.

If you think that God is a loving grandfather and doesn’t really punish sin, here are some passages for you to read:
Revelation 1:13-17 . Hebrews 12:18-24 . Hebrews 12:25-29 . Isaiah 6:3-7 . Ezekiel 1:26-2:1 . Genesis 15:9-17

1) God manifested His love in Christ’s incarnation – 1 John 4:9
God’s love is not abstract. It is personal–displayed in a person.

The cross displays the power to bring dead people to life. Each Christian is evidence of this.

2) God manifested His love by initiation. – 1 John 4:10a
We were not the initiators.

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.
It was not I that found, O Savior true;
no, I was found of thee.

Thou didst reach forth thy hand and mine enfold;
I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea.
‘Twas not so much that I on thee took hold,
as thou, dear Lord, on me.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee!
For thou wert long beforehand with my soul;
always thou lovedst me.

- anonymous

3) God manifested His love in substitutionary propitiation. - 1 John 4:10b
substitutionary propitiation = satisfactory payment
The offended paid the full penalty for the criminal.